The Wellington Film Society will host a rare live cinema event next Monday with local musicians performing a live soundtrack for The Joyless Street.
The Wellington Film Society has commissioned five Wellington musicians, known as the Joyless Orchestra, to perform a live soundtrack with the 1925 German film. The score will be inspired by music created in Austria at the time The Joyless Street is set (the '2nd Viennese School's' 12-tone compositions, waltzes, and Schrammelmusik).
The screening will be held at the Paramount on Monday 9 September at 6.15pm. The public is encouraged to attend the screening for a donation (notes only), Film Society members attend for free. The film has been provided by the Goethe Institut thanks to the long-standing relationship with the Wellington Film Society.
The Joyless Orchestra is made up of five Wellington musicians: Nell Thomas, Gerard Crewdson, Erika Grant, Chris Prosser and Daniel Beban. These five are involved in groups such as Orchestra of Spheres, Cookie Brooklyn and the Crumbs, The Mantarays, The Troubles and numerous other bands. Each has a background in improvised and experimental music, music for theatre and dance, and film soundtracks. All are multi-instrumentalists, and will perform the live soundtrack on viola, violin, cello, tuba, trombone, trumpet, accordion, flute, clarinet, percussion, drums, guitar and assorted electronics.
More about THE JOYLESS STREET (G W Pabst, Germany 1925) 151 minutes.
The restoration is a 151 minute version from Edition Filmmuseum. An 88 minute truncated version has previously screened in New Zealand and this is the first time that this restored version has been seen in Wellington. The Joyless Street is a seminal film in Weimar cinema as it marked the transition from expressionism to the "New Objectivity" style of filmmaking. New Objectivity was concerned with realistic portrayals of its characters and their concerns in pseudo-documentary style. Based on a novel by Austrian social critic Hugo Bettauer, it focuses on the inhabitants and patrons on one street in Vienna during the period of hyperinflation following Austria's defeat in World War I. http://www.filmsocietywellington.net.nz/db/screeningdetail.php?id=650&sy=2013
Thanks to the National Australia Bank for providing a NAB Community Grant to support this event. Wellington Film Society, affiliated to the NZ Federation of Film Societies, is the longest-standing film society in New Zealand. Formed in 1945 the Film Society is a registered charity and is run entirely by volunteer members. Full waged memberships cost $95 which equates to less than $3 per film across the year, in addition to receiving discounts at many Wellington cinemas. Screenings are held at the Paramount on Courtenay Place every Monday from 6.15 pm. For a full listing of the 2013 season please visit www.filmsocietywellington.net.nz
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